Check your insurance policy: identify a coverage gap before claiming

1. Collect the complete agreement

Start with the current schedule and corresponding general and special conditions. Add clauses, application, amendments and insurance information cards. Keep older versions if earlier damage may matter. List missing documents and request them from the right party. A premium invoice alone does not prove full agreed cover. Names such as comprehensive or complete matter less than the actual contract. Keep your own overview identifying which review relied on which version.

2. Check people, property and use

Is the policyholder correct, and who counts as insured? Check address, object, work and relevant usage. Private insurance need not automatically include business activities. Consider changes since application without assuming every change has the same notification duty. Ask the insurer or adviser what information is required and retain the reply. Describe changes factually if unsure. Assuming everything is roughly the same creates little clarity when that use later becomes decisive.

3. Record amounts and valuation method

Check sums insured, excess, category limits and valuation agreements. A high overall sum does not give every category the same ceiling. Check how payment is calculated: repair, current value or another agreed basis can matter. Ask about unfamiliar terms. Do not simply add purchase prices to determine the right insured amount if the policy uses another basis. Material differences may require valuation expertise before damage occurs.

4. Compare application and policy received

Compare original questions and wishes with the final confirmation. Which modules were requested and included? Are particular promises documented? Kifid emphasises customers checking received documents and actively reporting changes too. A mismatch does not automatically make every loss recoverable from the adviser. Instructions, advice, documents and consequences matter. Flag differences immediately, request written correction and monitor what is actually confirmed.

5. Make amendments provable

Send a clear description and proposed start date and ask when the amendment applies. A request is not automatically accepted extension. Keep and compare the new confirmation with your request. Ask about further conditions or investigation. Do not casually cancel old insurance while new acceptance remains uncertain. Existing damage needs separate historical coverage assessment. Do not retrospectively change application dates or descriptions as if a new situation had been reported earlier.

6. Examine advice issues separately

If an intermediary selected or amended insurance, ask what advice and aftercare were agreed. Kifid describes a duty of care depending on circumstances and instructions. This guarantees neither cover for every risk nor payment whenever something looks wrong. Collect advice report, fact-finding, service agreements and correspondence. A lawyer can assess evidence of error, loss and connection. Keep an adviser complaint separate from policy entitlement: legal bases and remedies can differ for the same event.

7. Fictional example: activity no longer matches the schedule

Suppose someone starts a home activity involving stock while the policy describes only the earlier private household. Before damage, he asks in writing whether and how extension is needed. He keeps the reply and new policy. If he discovers the mismatch only after a fire, the cover and communication then applicable must first be examined. This fictional example does not say home working is always excluded. Specific activities and confirmed amendment clarify more than remembering a product name.

8. Checklist for a policy discussion

For a significant review request answers per actual risk. Discuss completed amendments and those awaiting assessment. For an existing conflict or major possible gap, have a lawyer read the documents. Keep the overview for the next relevant change.

• Schedule, conditions, clauses and versions.
• Insured people, property, addresses and use.
• Amounts, excess, category limits and valuation.
• Application, advice and particular written agreements.
• Amendment requests, acceptance and confirmed start dates.